Record

CodeDS/UK/541
Person NameKennard; Peter (1949-); Photomontage artist, photographer, political activist
Dates1949-
Dates and Places1949 Born in London, England
1965 Studied at Byam Shaw School of Art, London
1967 Studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London
1976-1979 Studied at the RCA’s School of Photography
HistoryKennard was born in London, England in February 1949, and began painting and experimenting with art at the age of 13. He began his studies at the Byam Shaw School for Art at the age of 16, and then progressed to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. Kennard’s experiences at Slade shaped the trajectory of his career, with the political demonstrations that took place while he was a student inspiring him to create art with a strong political focus. Kennard is known for the prominent anti-war sentiments within his work, addressing conflicts such as the Vietnam war, and more recently criticising the crises within Ukraine and Gaza. His work for the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) which protested against the Cold War are some of his most iconic pieces. Kennard’s 2016 exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, titled the Unofficial War Artist, aptly summarises the focus and impact of Kennard’s work over the last 50 years, which has closely followed our changing political landscape.
ActivityExhibitions- Solo
2017 State of the Nations,  Diffusion Photography Festival, Cardiff
2016 Peter Kennard Off Message, mac, Birmingham
2016 @earth, Ideas Store, Canary Wharf, London
2015 Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist, Imperial War Museum, London
2014 Demotalk, Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival
2013 Blue Murder, Hang Up Gallery, London (kennardphillipps)
2013 Images of Resistance: Peter Kennard Retrospective, Gallery Fifty 24MX, Mexico City 2012 Occupy Everything, Hales Gallery, London (kennardphillipps)
2012 Iraq – How, Where, For Whom?, Mosaic Rooms, London (kennardphillipps)
2011 At Earth: Peter Kennard Retrospective, Raven Row, London
2010 We hope to be finished by lunchtime…., PhotoIreland Biennale, National Photographic Archive, Dublin (kennardphillipps)
2008 1968 STOP Paintings, Gimpel Fils, London
2008 Uncertified Documents: Peter Kennard Retrospective, Pump House Gallery, London
2008 Iraq: A Process of Resistance, Ink-D, Brighton
2007 Blairaq, Leonard Street Gallery, London (kennardphillipps)
2006 Untitled (Iraq),Photofusion, London (kennardphillipps)
2006 Obscenity, V22, London (kennardphillipps)
2005 Demo, Nørrebro Bibliotek, Copenhagen
2004 Award, Henry Peacock Gallery, London (kennardphillipps)
2004 Decoration, Gimpel Fils, London
2004 Decoration & Award, Street Level, Glasgow (kennardphillipps)
2004 Demo, City Hall, London (kennardphillipps)
2002 face, Gimpel Fils, London
2000 Domesday, Gimpels Fils, London
2000 Reading Room, Royal College of Art, London
1997 Photomontages – A 20 Year Retrospective, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London
1997 Reading Room, Gimpel Fils, London
1997 Home, Dazed and Confused Gallery, London
1997 Reading Room, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
1997 News-Truck, Edinburgh Streets (Edinburgh Festival)
1997 Unwords, The Millais Gallery, Southampton
1996 Unwords, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool; Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre; Rowley’s House Museum, Shrewsbury
1995 Our Financial Times with Ken Livingston MP, Gimpel Fils, London
1995 Welcome to Britain, Sassoon Gallery, Folkestone
1995 From and Abandoned Alley, Cambridge Dark Room, Cambridge
1994 Welcome to Britain, Royal Festival Hall, London
1992 Stop (Paintings and Photomontages 1973-1991), Kent Gallery, New York
1992 Our 999, Gimpel Fils, London
1992 Welcome to Britain, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
1992 Out of Order, Zone Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
1990 Images for the End of the Century (Installation), Gimpel Fils, London
1990 Images for the End of the Century (Photomontages), Imperial War Museum, London; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
1989 Photomontages for Peace, United Nations, Palais des Nations, Geneva
1987 In a Right State, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; Camerawork, London; Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1985 Images Against War
1965-85, Barbican Centre, London
1984 Data
1984, Barbican Centre, London (touring UK and Germany)
1982-1983 Dispatches from an Unofficial War Artist, County Hall, London; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and touring
1981 Images for Disarmament, Institute of Contemporary Art, Arnolfini, Bristol
1980 No Nuclear Weapons, Camerawork, London (touring)
1978 A Document on Chile, Half Moon Gallery, London (touring)
1973 Photomontage, Photographic Study Centre, Southampton University
1971 Printevents, Gardner Arts Centre, Sussex University
1970 Generaion Newspeak Phase 2, Zeez Arts, London
1970 News You Missed, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
1968 Generation Newspeak Phase 1, St Catherine’s College, Oxford Group Exhibitions
2017 After Image, Civic gallery, Trento, Italy
2016 A World to Win: Posters of Protest and Revolution, Victoria & Albert Museum, William Morris Gallery, London and touring
2016 Designer Maker User, Design Museum, London
2015 Heaven and Hell, Boghossian Foundation,Brussels
2015 Risk, Turner Contemporary, Margate
2014 Keywords, Tate Liverpool
2014 The Postcard is a Public Work of Art, X Marks the Bokship, London (kennardphillipps)
2013 Caught in the Crossfire, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry
2013 Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War, Imperial War Museum, Manchester (kennardphillipps) 2013 Geographies of War: Iraq Revisited, University College, London (kennardphillipps)
2013 It’s a Cut Up, Flannel’s Gallery, Leeds
2013 Uncertain States, The Bank, Whitechapel, London (kennardphillipps)
2013 To Have and Have Not, Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen, Netherlands (kennardphillipps)
2013 Living with War: Artists on War and Conflict, Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow
2013 Architecture of War, Imperial War Museum, London
2013 BP Walk through British Art, Tate Britain, London
2012 Exotica, Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia (kennardphillipps)
2012 Les Fleurs du mal, Museum of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw (kennardphillipps)
2012 Artwall, (Prague street art project) Czech Republic (kennardphillipps)
2012 The Wall, Photographers Gallery, London (kennardphillipps)
2012 New Acquisitions, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
2012 Our Demonstration, Guardian Newsroom Gallery, London
2012 The Robinson Institute, Tate Britain, London
2012 Tracing the Century: Drawing as a Catalyst for Change, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool
2011 The Big Society, Galerie Vallois, Paris
2011Dear Lynda, White Columns, New York; Chelsea Art College Gallery, London (kennardphillipps)
2010 Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, Amnesty International, London (kennardphillipps) 2010 Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, Tate Britain, London
2010 Transformed: Artist’ Books and Bookworks, Imperial War Museum, London (kennardphillipps)
2010 Brit Insurance Design Awards, The Design Museum, London
2009 Signs of Revolt: Creative Resistance and Social Movements since Seattle, Truman Brewery, London (kennardphillipps)
2009 Embedded Art, Akademie der Kunst, Berlin (kennardphillipps)
2008 Art, Media and Contested Space, Public Art Projects, Belfast (kennardphillipps)
2007 Antennae, Houston Centre of Photography, Houston (kennardphillipps)
2007 Ammunition, St Margaret’s Church Art Gallery, Norwich (kennardphillipps)
2007 Forms of Resistance: Artists and the desire for social change from 1871 to the present, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
2007 Green Zone/Red Zone, Gemak, The Free Academy, Den Hague (kennardphillipps)
2007 Santa’s Ghetto, Manger Square, Bethlehem, Palestine (kennardphillipps)
2006 Picture This, Barge House, London (kennardphillipps)
2006 Prints Now, Victorian & Albert Museum, London (kennardphillipps)
2006 Plug, County Hall, London 2006 Santa’s Ghetto, Oxford Street, London
2005 Street Art Akciok, Millenarision Park, Budapest
2005 East International 05 (War on War Room), The Norwich Gallery, Norwich
2005 Sunek/Thrust: Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia (kennardphillipps representing Britain) 2005 Artfutures, Bloomberg Gallery, London
2004  Pax Britannica, The Aquarium, London Career Senior Research Reader in Photography, Art and the Public Domain, Royal College of Art 
RelationshipsCat Phillips, Collaborator, 'kennardphillips', since 2002
Ed Barber, Collaborator, CND, Half Moon Gallery and Camerawork
Source“Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent”. Whitechapel Gallery. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/peter-kennard-archive-of-dissent/.
“Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist”. RCA Society. Accessed July 3, 2024. http://www.rcasociety.net/node/5661.
“Peter Kennard”. Art and Artists, Tate. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/peter-kennard-10184.
Kennard, Peter. Peter Kennard. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.peterkennard.com.
Lloyd, Joe. “Peter Kennard- Interview: Montage is about allowing people to think critically”. Studio International. Mar 3, 2021. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/peter-kennard-interview-montage-is-about-allowing-people-to-think-critically-concept-of-history-richard-saltoun-gallery-london.
RCA. “50 Years of Peter Kennard’s Visual Dissent”. News, Royal College of Art. Sep 12, 2019. Accessed July 3, 2024. https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/50-years-of-peter-kennards-visual-dissent/.
Catalogue
RefNoTitle
CWACamerawork Archive
CPG/1/1Cockpit Gallery Holborn Exhibition List
CPG/2/8'2 Exhibitions about Conflict and the Press, 1983: "A Falklands Scrapbook" and "Politics: Media: Entertainment (Media coverage of the Iranian Embassy Siege, London, 1980)"', Cockpit Gallery Holborn, 5 Jan - 2 Feb 1983.
CWA/1/2/10Peter Kennard and Ric Sissons: A Document on Chile, Half Moon Photography Workshop, 1978
CWA/2/2/9Peter Kennard: Despatches From 1984, 2 January - 12 January, 1984.
CWA/2/2/22Peter Kennard and John Heartfield: In a Right State, 22 April - 21 May, 1987
CWA/2/2/73Victor Burgin, Fay Godwin, Irving Penn, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Peter Kennard, Chris Killip, John Berger, Grace Robertson, Olivier Richon, Karen Knorr, Jo Spence: Jo Spence Health Fund Show, 15 May - 15 June, 1991
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